Today, much waste or waste material from stores, convenience stores, fast food chains, restaurants, retail locations, offices, schools, and commercial, institutional, and government environments or locations is discarded by individuals (e.g. mainly consumers, employees, students) into waste receptacles (e.g. trash containers, trash receptacles, trash cans, garbage containers, garbage receptacles, and garbage cans) provided onsite. These waste receptacles typically are fitted with disposable plastic bags, which can be closed when filled, removed from the waste receptacles, and then disposed of in waste containers (e.g. trash cans, garbage cans, and dumpsters) usually located outside the buildings and/or adjacent to the parking lots of these locations to facilitate removal by a waste disposal service.
Typically, the waste is not sorted onsite, and all different types of waste are discarded into the same waste receptacles resulting in a wide variety of waste mixed together, including trash, garbage, paper products plastic products, food waste, and other waste items defining a general waste stream. The plastic bags filled with waste are thrown into a garbage can or dumpster, and mixed with other loose waste or plastic bags containing waste. This waste is transported in dumpsters or garbage trucks to land fills, and typically not sorted before land filling.
Currently, there exists a need to recover materials, which requires separating or sorting waste into targeted waste to allow this particular waste to be effectively recycled. Once certain types of waste are mixed together, even subsequent separating or sorting may not allow the waste to be recycled due to the contamination of the targeted waste with other types of waste. In particular, waste food and beverage products (e.g. paper products, paper cups, paper plates, paper containers, plastic products, plastic cups, plastic containers, foam products, foam cups, foam plates, foam containers, cardboard products) should not be mixed with other types of waste to avoid being contaminated to allow these types of waste to be recycled into new products suitable for contact and use with food and beverage that meet the standards and guidelines of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Further, to ensure proper handling of the waste food and beverage products, the custody of this waste from the point of disposal (e.g. store located waste receptacle) through the point of recycling of this waste must be established, tracked, maintained, and verified to assure no additional contamination thereof. Thus, it is preferred that this type of waste be immediately separated or sorted at the onsite location, and maintained separate from the general or mixed waste stream throughout collecting, transporting, storing, and recycling thereof. However, if maintained separate in the way described here it can be economically co-transported from facility to facility.
Due to the large amount of labor involved with sorting, it is desirable that consumers (e.g. individuals, end users, customers, students, employees, workers, contractors) of food and beverage products immediately begin the process of sorting the waste food and beverage products by placing these items in marked waste collection containers (e.g. receptacles, bins, vessels). For example, consumers immediately place used paper cups or plastic bottles into separately marked waste collection containers to begin the process of effectively sorting particular types of waste. The marked waste collection containers, preferably contain a removable disposable bag(s) or liner(s), which when filled can be removed and then disposed of into waste containers such as garbage cans and dumpsters.
In the recycling of paper cups and paper plates, the paper substrate is of a high quality paperboard stock, which has been treated with a plastic, wax, or resin coating process to make the paperboard resistant to water penetration and resulting degradation. It is desirable to be able to recycle this particular type of paper stock into long fiber pulp and/or food grade paperboard suitable for manufacturing paper cups, paper plates, and other direct food contact type products and containers, while maintaining a sanitary environment and ensuring a high degree of custody and segregation to avoid the inclusion of any hazardous or deleterious materials in the new products.
Due to increasing public, private, and government awareness and interest in “going green” and being environmentally friendly, there exists renewed interest and demand for recycled products having greater percentages of recycled material content. Thus, this demand will require new and effective systems and methods of recycling waste into renewable products.
In most store, retail, office, school, commercial, institutional, and government environments or locations, simple waste receptacles (e.g. trash containers, trash cans, garbage containers, garbage cans) are still used today to collect and remove waste from these environments or locations. Again, it is common to provide disposable plastic bags or liners in waste receptacles to facilitate removal and transfer of the waste to garbage cans and dumpsters and to maintain a sanitary condition of the waste receptacles. In order to recycle the waste, in particular targeted waste to be recycled into food grade new products (e.g. paper cups, plastic cups, foam cups, paper plates, plastic plates, foam plates, paper bowls, plastic bowls, foam bowls, plastic utensils), it is desirable to treat the waste prior to and/or during the collecting, storing, transporting, and recycling stages or steps. In particular, it is desirable to densify the waste to reduce its volume, disinfect, and remove water or liquid from the waste to prevent deterioration of the waste (e.g. breaking down of the waste chemically or biologically) to maintain the high quality of the waste material to be recycled, particularly waste to be recycled into food grade or contact recycled products.
Further, it is desirable to collect the waste immediately after use by the consumer, in particular at the onsite environment or location, again to obtain the waste material to be recycled before any deterioration thereof. For example, new paper products are typically placed in contact or filled with food and beverage at store (e.g. fast food establishments, cafes, restaurants, food courts, markets, convenience stores), retail, office, school, commercial, institutional, and government environments or locations, and then immediately consumed onsite. Thus, it is desirable to provide a waste collection device onsite that is configured to operate onsite, and capable of safely and effectively interfacing with consumers. The waste collection device is configured to treat the waste being discarded by mechanical treatment (e.g. shredding, compressing, rolling), separating hard items like glass, wood, etc. to protect the mechanical treatment mechanism and limit consumer contamination, light treatment (e.g. laser, UV, IR), disinfecting, removing water, treating with air, chemicals, gases, and treating with pressure, vacuum, and heat. It is particularly desirable to treat the waste immediately upon being discarded into the waste collection device, however, additional or timed treatments can be applied inside or within the waste collection device, again to maintain the high quality of the stock material to be recycled.